Doris Mager, founder of Save Our American Raptors (SOAR), will be making presentations involving live birds of prey including an American Kestrel, Great-horned Owl, and a Crested Caracara also known as a Mexican Eagle. This will be a rare opportunity to see live birds of prey up-close and personal.

Learn about these magnificent birds and the conservation efforts designed to ensure their survival. Ms. Mager will be presenting five educational programs throughout the weekend in the Dining Hall Facility at Brazos Bend State Park. Programs have limited seating and will be filled on a first come -first served basis.

All programs are free of charge with regular park admission. ($7.00 per person, children 12 and under are free).

Mager has more than 40 years experience rehabilitating injured birds of prey and conducting educational programs in an effort to promote the understanding and appreciation of birds of prey. In 1963, while working as a store manager for the Florida Audubon Society, an injured red-tailed hawk was brought in for treatment. All were afraid of the hawk, but Mager volunteered to care for it and nursed the hawk back to health and released it back to the wild.

Word of her success spread and soon more injured raptors were brought to her care. Mager’s love of birds of prey grew and she conducted Bald Eagle nesting surveys in Florida for seventeen years. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Game Commission of Florida entrusted Mager with the care and captivity of many birds of prey including Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles.

The birds were all unable to be released to the wild and were entrusted to her care for educational purposes. While still with the Florida Audubon Society, Mager once spent seven days and six nights in an abandoned eagle nest to raise money for the now famous Florida Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida.

In 1983 she founded SOAR to focus her attention on public education programs. She has traveled almost 200,000 miles in her current van crisscrossing the United States making presentations in parks, schools, wildlife centers and on Indian reservations.

For more information visit our website at www.brazosbend.org or call the park at 979-553-5101.